LONDON: A new 'India Readiness Programme' for British companies keen to make their entry and expand into the vast Indian market has been launched here today.

The UK India Business Council (UKIBC) has joined forces with Cambridge-based cross-border firm, AcceloratorIndia, to offer the unique service which covers research, business development and advisory support.

The programme will combine AcceleratorIndia's expertise in technology and innovation-led business development in India with UKIBC's network and pan-India Business Centre platform.

"India has opened up its economy to foreign investment and trade immensely in recent years and there are huge opportunities to be found in a number of sectors.

This partnership, and our new UK India Business Centres, will allow us to help even more companies take their first steps in India, and will go a long way to increasing trade between our two nations," said Richard Heald, CEO of UKIBC.

"Many UK companies find the size and complexity of the Indian market daunting at first, but with India's growing importance in the world economy it is a market that can no longer be ignored," he added.

The India Readiness Programme, to be offered for a fixed fee yet to be worked out, allows UK companies to assess how well prepared they are for India market entry.

It offers a range of services including establishing product or service relevance with local Indian market needs, addressing the unique challenges of selling into India such as channels to market, scaling up profitably, pricing and business models.

Structured as a workshop followed by a review session, the programme provides UK companies a very effective and rapid way to gain a better understanding of the opportunities, challenges and risks of doing business in India.

"We are delighted to be working closely with UKIBC to accelerate the entry of innovative and technology-enabled UK companies into the Indian market," said Uday Phadke, executive chairman of AcceleratorIndia, a business accelerator that partners with UK companies to help capture the India opportunity across media and telecommunications, healthtech, advanced engineering and renewable energy sectors.

A recent survey of Britain-based firms found that 60 per cent of companies find getting to grips with the Indian market problematic and around 55 per cent find understanding Indian business culture an issue.

This new service will help address the main challenges faced by Britain's small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Meanwhile, the UKIBC is all set for the official launch its first UK India Business Centre in Gurgaon in mid-September to offer a one-stop hub for British companies eyeing the Indian market and vice versa.

PTI